The Ministry of Transport has approved the implementation of GrabTaxi services in three provinces, including Thanh Hóa, An Giang and Đắk Nông.  Photo dantri.com.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Transport has given the green light to the implementation of GrabTaxi services in three provinces, including Thanh Hóa, An Giang and Đắk Nông.

In a document sent to the three provincial transport departments, the ministry said that it always encouraged the application of science and technology in transportation to enhance service quality and improve convenience for passengers.

Accordingly, GrabTaxi will be used to book rides for Sao Đỏ Taxi in An Giang Province, Việt Đức Taxi in Đắk Nông and Bắc Trung Nam Taxi in Thanh Hóa.

The ministry, however, noted that Grab was not allowed to directly work with taxi drivers to provide the services without agreement of the provincial departments of transport and taxi services operators.

GrabTaxi was a service to book a taxis provided on Grab’s ride-hailing platform and registered as an e-commerce platform with nationwide operation.

GrabTaxi is a different service from GrabCar.

The GrabCar service to book a ride provided by a "contract vehicle" has now been piloted in several provinces and cities, including Hà Nội, HCM City, Đà Nẵng, Khánh Hòa and Quảng Ninh.

The pilot implementation of applying technology in contracted passenger transportation was scheduled to end in 2018 but allowed to be extended until a decree about automobile transportation business with regulations to manage the operation of ride hailing services like Grab was issued to replace existing Decree 86/2014.NĐ-CP.

Besides Grab, 12 companies were allowed to join in the pilot implementation, including Be Group, Vato, V.Car, Thanh Cong Car, S.Car, Vic.Car, Home Car, Mai Linh Car, LB.Car and Emddi.  VNS